Invited Artists



Pawel_Althamer | Michael_Asher | Nairy_Baghramian | Guy_Ben-Ner | Guillaume_Bijl | Martin_Boyce | Jeremy Deller | Michael_Elmgreen und Ingar_Dragset | Hans-Peter_Feldmann | Dora_Garcia | Isa_Genzken | Dominique_Gonzalez-Foerster | Tue_Greenfort | David_Hammons | Valérie_Jouve | Mike_Kelley | Suchan Kinoshita | Marko_Lehanka | Gustav_Metzger | Eva_Meyer und Eran_Schaerf | Deimantas_Narkevicius | Bruce_Nauman | Maria_Pask | Manfred_Pernice | Susan_Philipsz | Martha_Rosler | Thomas_Schütte | Andreas_Siekmann | Rosemarie_Trockel | Silke_Wagner | Mark_Wallinger | Clemens von Wedemeyer | Annette_Wehrmann | Pae_White

 


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Martin Boyce

*1967 in Glasgow, lives and works in Glasgow and Berlin




Project: We are still and reflective (Wir sind still und reflektieren)

The world comes to life through the attention we focus on. The cat sitting in the room next door only exists when someone goes and looks at it; what does not show does not exist. And yet it is there, says Martin Boyce, it just needs to be noticed. His work for skulptur projekte münster 07 does not impose itself on visitors, but is underneath the horizon, embedded in the ground. The inconspicuous site on the premises of the former zoo is covered with formed concrete slabs. Thirteen shapes form a pattern that Martin Boyce has borrowed from the French sculptors Jan and Joel Martel. In the 1920s, these artists designed abstract trees made of concrete, which, according to Boyce, represent “a perfect unity of architecture and nature.” In selected spaces between the concrete slabs, Boyce has installed bands made of brass that form letters following the outlines of the slabs. The letters say, “We are still and reflective.” A message that is difficult to understand but easy to overlook. Yet, being aware of the sentence embedded in the ground the abandoned site fills with emotion and meaning. It is a silent signal, and though it is transmitted constantly, it does not try to attract attention, for it has all the time in the world.


Biography

Martin Boyce works at the interface of design, architecture and daily life. Boyce addresses himself to the form and function of designed objects and analyses their concepts. He fundamentally disturbs the very substance of the works of Arne Jacobsen, Mies van der Rohe, and Charles and Ray Eames. He reinterprets and develops them further. Boyce, who participated in the Lyon Biennale of 2003 and received the Art Award of the Adolf Luther Foundation in Krefeld, abandons the modernist design. Disconcerting and strange environments come into being. Boyce's "fragile landscapes" underline the artist's interest in styling and design, which profoundly determine the human habitat and life. Boyce reflects the idea of landscape, including "fragmented or imaginary landscapes, generic and archetypical sites. These landscapes are often described through details and fragments." One detail, says Boyce, can "create an imaginary and habitable place". Even though the artist changes only a minor detail of the modernist classics of design, he is working on the construction and deconstruction of landscape.

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